Business group looks to spark more entrepreneurship

By Stephanie Stark

The Athens County Economic Development Council, also dubbed Athens
Business Remixed, has launched a campaign to promote entrepreneurship and
creativity in the county.

The campaign was announced Friday evening in conjunction with
Startup Weekend, an intense 54-hour event at Ohio University where teams
competed in creating web or mobile applications for credible startup
businesses.

The Remixed campaign awards business grants and cash rewards to
local entrepreneurs, writers, photographers and artists from Athens.

The first competition awards a $10,000 grant to a business idea
"that is most persuasive, most efficacious, and best presented" to launch in
Athens in 2013.

It also grants a
cash award to the top three winners of a "story telling and spirit
competition." The competition awards $3,000 for first place, $1,250 for second
place and $750 for third place to residents or students who tell "the best
Athens County story" by photograph, blog or video online.

The competition aims to produce at least one new business
starting up or relocating to Athens County, and "hundreds of new pieces of
online content about the true spirit of Athens County," according to the news
release.

"The goal is to attract businesses to Athens County and to do so
by telling the story of Athens County, and who better to tell it than those of
us who love it here and live here?" asked Todd Shelton, director of Athens
Business Remixed, in a press release.

The campaign was announced at the start of the OU Innovation
Center's annual Startup Weekend, where students and community members gathered
to hear from entrepreneurs and startup businesses, and experimented with creating
prototypes for business ideas. The competition ended Sunday with final
presentations and team awards.

The finalists will be judged by a panel of local business leaders
and other economic development stakeholders. More information about the contest
is available at startitupathens.com.